Two alley cats, Babbitt and Catsello, decide to make a meal out of Orson as he sleeps in his nest atop a telephone pole. The gullible (and loud) Catsello is repeatedly gulled into trying to "get the bird," earning a variety of thrashings from the casually murderous little canary. Catsello finally resorts to an air strike (with a pair of wooden boards for wings), but it's wartime, and Orson has the cat blasted out of the sky by anti-aircraft guns.
Wile E. Coyote uses, among other things, a dehydrated boulder to try to catch the Road Runner.
The gypsy Azucena (Fiorenza Cossotto) takes revenge for her mother who was accused of putting a curse on one of the old Count di Luna's two sons: she decides to abduct the younger child and throw it in the flames. But when she is about to carry out this fatal act, the gypsy sacrifices her own child and keeps the old Count’s son, whom she names Manrico (IL TROVATORE, Plácido Domingo). Later, as adults, the troubadour Manrico and the Count di Luna’s elder son (Piero Cappucilli) do not know each other, but become rivals for the beautiful Leonora (Raina Kabaivanska). Manrico succeeds in winning the young woman’s heart, and she sacrifices herself for him, deceiving the Count’s son. Mad with jealousy, the latter orders the execution of the troubadour in front of his mother. Azucena reveals to him that Manrico was his brother. This legendary performance of Giuseppe Verdi's most successful opera was recorded at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Herbert von Karajan.
José Cura gestaltet seinen Manrico ungemein testosteronlastig. Dass die Gesangstechnik von Dimitri Hvorostovsky schon immer etwas problematisch war, kann jeder bezeugen, der ihn einmal live erlebte. Auf dieser DVD treten diese Hinderlichkeiten allerdings nicht weiter in den Vordergrund. Veronica Villaroel, auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer Gesangskariere, gelingt eine bezwingende Leonora. Yvonne Naef ist sicherlich eine der erotischten Azucenas, die man je zu Ohren bekommen hat. Eine großartige Rollenausdeutung. Tomas Tomasson überzeugt als Ferrando. Carlo Rizzi dirigiert das Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in gewohnter Qualität.
Verdi’s IL TROVATORE again storms the Met stage in a star-studded, anvil-wielding cast , including Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Marcelo Álvarez sings Manrico, the troubadour of the title. The story is well-known already: The gypsy Azucena has harbored a grudge for thirty years, but she is about to have revenge at last. Meanwhile, her son Manrico is in love with Leonora, but so is his arch-enemy, the Count Di Luna. A pot-boiler, where every tune is a hit.
Once upon a time, in the evening of his Birthday, a boy got from his parents a strange gift: an Anvil from which he would never separate. An uncomfortable load to carry, which will make his life particularly troubled, preventing him from doing what he wants, and even from approaching the girl he loves. But we are in a fairytale... And in fairy tales, everybody get a second chance.